Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1887-06-25
A 4PHONEs EXCHANGE.
TROUBLES AND ANNoYANcEs TO
WHICH THE GIRLS ARE SUBJECT.

Liable TO Get Confused While at Work
business Methods in Vocal Sem
sorium.
visited the telephone exchange for
door was opened, twenty comedy young
women sitting in long row in easy arm
chairs, before tables, with endless appa-
ratus before them. That was the first
fact that / grasped. The next one was
that these girls were not shouting at all.
There was low, indistinct murmur, and
that was oil. AS approached nearer
could hear, In tones not much above
whisper, the ever monotonous "Hello
hellor' "No. 42S." Hello, hellop "Ye-esl''
"Good-byr' but one clear voice, in q
good speaking tone, might have been
heard plainly across that whole room
above all the business Of making the con-
nections for over two thousand people.
THE GIRLS AT WORK.
Every girl had strapped upon her head,
or at least held there by its own grip, an
apparatus composed of crossed steel bands,
her ear. Before her, dangling by long
wire in just such a position as to hang ex-
actly in front Of her mouth, was the trans
mitter. Each girl leaned back In COM
fJrtable attitude, and seemed entirely cool
and unconcerned, while both hands were
occupied in inserting wires with metal
plugs at their ends into certain holes be-
fore her and pulling them out again.
There were rows upon rows of these little
Gpertures, and every one OF them repre-
sented somebody's telephone number.
Each girl takes care Of limited nun.
Der of calls, which are signaled
to her by the dropping Of little
metallic tablet with the number of the
callers instrument upon 1t, bur she has
within her reach, in those little apertures
that have mentioned, every one Of tho
telephone numbers within the radius of
the exchange.
''These seem to be young women of ex-
cellent physique" said to the superin-
tendent, Mr.. Carly, US he invited me to o
seat by his desk.
I'VE insist upon that" said he; 1--WE
have found that girls of good physique,
healthy young women, IRE much less
liable to Irritation and impotence, much
less likely to get ratified, than those who
uIc " ubtic Wctth vi Ill IL Is IOb tUitJ tIlt
work wears upon them so that only wo-
men of unusual physique can stand 1t, but
that we must have operators who are
likely to keep their tempers and maintain
GOODNESS Of demeanor. Does it deafen
them? know Of but one case of an OPP
erative's hearing being affected and that
might easily have been from some other
cause. They do not seem to suffer much
neryously, though there was one case o.
hysteria here last week ~
/ CALL FOR. A SUBSTITUTE.
zone of the girls--that one with The
slender figure and dark hair, near the cnd
of the hne-got confused and ratified, as
we call it, over series of vexations, ant
asked to have substitute placed In hel
chair. You see that we keep five substi
'tutes in the room to relieve those who de
| sire to be relieved at any time. Well
this. young woman went into the girls
waiting room and had an attack Of hys
| terra there. Not infrequently something
occurs on the line-somebody gets impa
tient and loses his temper-which trouble!
the girls, They generally go into theil
room and have good cry, and come bacl
feeling better. They certainly seem {,
like the work, though the pay is only g.
q week. The hours are not long, they ST
all day, they are relieved when needfu
and the actual work seems to be agreeable
| to Them
| There was stunning sound undc
the superintendent table. He held
telephone receiver to his ear and talket
through O movable transmitter ON tn,
table. "Certainly," he said ina low tone
l 4 .
young woman from the window and mo
toned to her to take the chair of one o
the operators. He had been talking
with one of the girls not fifteen feet ava,
over the telephone. She could have spokcl
to him through the air by turning he
head, but 1t would have made little nois
and confusion in the room, and this moderl
tower of Babel, this vocal sensorium of |
whole city, is us quiet as a public librar.
reading room. The substitute girl tool
the others place, two ''calls' cam
tumbhng down at the same instant, an,
somebody was undoubtedly vexed becaus
he was not answered for an instant whil'
she was making the other connection
But 1t takes hut an instant.
ave like to have people who have tele
phones come up here" said the superin
tendent. at gives them an idea how tn,
thing is done, and we notice that they sci
dom get impatient In the use of their tele
phones afterward." Certainly these girl
were not trining with their work. Tn
superintendent by merely putting an in
strument to his ear can hear every wor,
that passes between any operator and thu
people with whom she talks, and thu
seems an almost unnecessary restraint
Vexntion makes the. work harder for tn
operator, and she avoids 1t. Women err
though boys must be employed at night
and that is why the day service is bette
than that Of the night. Boston Post